Venti sat outside of the Good Hunter while he lazily strung his hands along his lyre and listened for any strings that may need to be tuned. The wind swayed on by and he gave a ghost of a smile at the cooling sensation that washed over his body. The day was hot and a nice breeze was just what he needed. Summer was upon them meaning the days were going to get hotter for the next couple of months. Venti struck each cord expertly with his fingers and played a soft melody. A song was already starting to form in his mind.

"Oh!" Before Venti knew it, he was face-to-face with an adventurer. Venti paused playing his lyre to look at this kid. He couldn't be older than a teenager, silver hair, bright green eyes…

"Bennett!" It took Venti a moment, but the name came to him. "It's been awhile. How can a fellow bard be of service?"

"I was hoping I'd run into you…" Bennett's voice was soft as he awkwardly rubbed the back of his head. He looked a little worried.

Venti blinked before smiling a knowing smile. "I see, you must want more classes from me right? Help you get with that sweet girl? Or boy. I don't judge."

"W-What? No. It's nothing like that." Bennett kept the frown on his face although a faint blush flushed across his cheeks. "It's actually about Miss Lumine."

Now that had Venti's attention. He couldn't help but just let out a low whistle. "Talk about aiming high-"

"It's not like that!" Bennett yelled in both annoyance and embarrassment. "It's just that I know you are close to Lumine. I only wanted to ask if you've seen her as of late? She's been gone an awful long while."

A frown tugged at Venti's lips. When was the last time he'd seen his fair Lumine? Venti pondered on this question and he tapped at his chin. "I guess… it has been a while… but, if I know the lovely Traveler she's probably off on some grand adventure and will be back before too long with some big story to tell!"

Bennett relaxed at Venti's comforting words. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"Of course I'm right!" Venti patted Bennett's shoulder and smiled. "Now, I'm sure you have some commissions to take care of, right?"

"Oh gosh!" Bennett jumped. "Thanks for reminding me!" And with that proclamation, Bennett ran off and Venti watched him go. Venti stood there for a few moments before slowly going down the steps and stopping in front of Katheryne's booth.

"Katheryne?"

"Ad astra abyssosque. Welcome to the adventurers guild." Katheryne politely greeted. Venti was sure he could hear her gears turning, but he kept it to himself.

Venti knew he was being silly. Lumine was fine, it was Lumine after all, no matter what trouble she got into she always came out on top smelling like a cecilia, but Bennett planted a seed of doubt in his mind. With a quick clear of his throat Venti spoke. "Katheryne, you haven't happened to have seen Lumine as of late? Have you?"

Katheryne paused, her eyes shut for just a couple of seconds, before she reopened them. "I'm afraid not."

"Has she been doing her commissions at least?"

Another pause. "The last commission she did here in Mondstadt was roughly three weeks ago."

"Can you see if she's been doing her Liyue commissions?"

"I can't. You'd have to ask Liyue Katheryne that."

Venti frowned again, but tried his hardest not to let his worry show. He lightly tapped at the counter thinking of questions to ask. When none came to his mind right away, Venti just sighed out a soft "Thanks." before turning and leaving Katheryne alone.

His mind reeled all the possibilities as he stepped up the first flight of steps and he wondered if maybe he should reach out to some contacts in Liyue about Lumine. Bennett was right, this wasn't like Lumine at all. Lumine always did her commissions. A part of his mind was telling him that he was being stupid about this, that Lumine was fine, and because of Bennett, Venti was now worryin, but another part of his mind was saying that: No, Bennett is right to be worried as should Venti this wasn't like Lumine. At all.

Well, as Venti went up the second flight of stairs and got to the top, he got his answer sooner than he anticipated. His answer came in the form of a scream. A scream from little Flora.

"Oh- Oh my Archons…" Venti heard Marjorie whisper in pure shock before he turned around.

The world almost seemed to stop as Venti turned his head around to see the commotion.

Walking through Mondstadt's gate was Lumine. It was almost perfect. But, for Venti, the world did stop once he actually saw her.

Lumine had her head down, staring at her bare feet as she limped through the gate- yes, bare feet. Her boots were missing, but that wasn't the worst of it. Her dress, usually so crisp and white, now tattered, torn and bloodied. The black straps that held it up were torn, so she had one hand on the top of her dress, the fabric bunched in her fist to keep it from slipping off. The flowers that she had in her hair were missing. Lumine too was bruised and battered. She had more cuts and bruises than she had skin, she looked like she had just emerged from a warzone, and that…

That still wasn't the worst.

She was covered in blood. The front of her dress had splatters of dark dried blood here and there, but her mouth… she had crusted and dried blood all over her mouth that made a gory trail down her neck. The thing was, just looking at her, Venti knew, he knew… that blood wasn't Lumine's own. It was someone else's.

Venti took it all in. Venti was just frozen there, his mouth slightly agape as he stared at his friend in disbelief. He wanted to run, to grab her and demand who hurt her, but his legs, it was like they were made of rocks, like the Lord Geo himself turned Venti's legs into two stone pillars.

It was like he was seeing her, but for several long passing seconds he watched Lumine pitifully limp- She was limping.

'Who hurt her?'

When everything clicked into place for Venti… it was absolutely horrific. The wind came to an absolute stop and all of Mondstadt stilled.

Swan and Lawrence turned from their position at the gate. It was like Swan saw her, didn't think about it, and realized almost too late that she was hurt. "Honorary knight? Do you need help?" Swan's heart was in the right place, but even Venti knew he was going about it all wrong. Swan didn't dare touch Lumine. Swan was young, inexperienced in these kinds of things, nobody in the knights would know what to do in this situation.

Lumine stopped, Swan and Lawrence stopped just right behind her. She didn't turn, nor did she address them. She didn't address anybody. No, Venti saw her legs start to give.

It was like Venti was struck by lightning, his legs no longer felt like rocks, and before he knew it, he rushed to his friend's aid. He caught her just before she fell. He had one hand clamped desperately on her back while he tried to steady her with his other hand. Together they slowly lowered to their knees. "I got you…" Venti whispered weakly. For a moment he made eye contact with Swan. "Get Jean." This wasn't Venti talking, it was Barbatos demanding. There was a difference and Swan tensed at the sudden change but did as he was told and ran off.

Now that he was closer to Lumine, Venti could see every cut and bruise that littered her skin, and his stomach did flips. He saw on her wrists were bruises, some in the shape of fingers, but there was a clear outline of rope that was still indented in the tender skin around her wrists. It wasn't just cuts and bruises either. Up along her right forearm was a deep burn that absolutely looked infected. 'She's had that for a while.'

Venti went from disgusted to absolutely enraged once he got a look at her hands. Both hands were stabbed through the palm. The cuts weren't bleeding, but like the burn; the stab wounds were infected and already filled with pus. 'Her power. She uses her hands…'

His stomach absolutely dropped to his knees once he put two and two together. "I got you." Venti found himself whispering again, but it was pointless as Lumine had long since passed out. Her head fell back and Venti maneuvered his hands so he cradled her head in one of his arms and let her lay down. This allowed him to get a better look at her face.

Aside from the little nicks and bruises that covered most of her face, only one thing stood out to Venti, and that was the deep cut on the left side of her mouth. It tore through both of her busted lips and was a nasty cut that wasn't going to heal easily. With a slightly shaky hand, Venti moved some of Lumine's hair out of her face. 'Who would hurt you so?'

The wind started to swirl around them as a crowd formed. Venti could make out a few noticeable faces, but he couldn't think about them, like the rest of them, he could only focus on Lumine. 'Why would someone do this to you?' He thought as he reached over and grabbed her hand again. The more he looked at her the more he saw and the more disturbed he became. Her nails, something he had failed to see before… her nails were gone. 'Torture…'

The wind suddenly gusted. Window shutters were slammed open and slapped violently against the walls. Chairs from the Good Hunter fell over, a couple even dragging along with the violent winds.

"Lord Barbatos is angry…" A couple of people whispered in shock.

'Yes, Barbatos is very angry…' Venti thought as he tried to get the winds to calm down, but, as his fist clenched tightly and the winds continued to blow violently enough to knock some people over, he knew that it was easier said than done.

Honestly, if it weren't for a hand to clamp on his shoulder, the winds probably would have blown harder. Venti blinked.. His eyes met Jean's and there was a dead silence between them as she stared emotionless at Lumine. Even though she was trying to be emotionless, Venti could see it. In Jean's eyes, she was just as horrified as him and everyone else in Mondstadt. But, unlike him, she needed to keep her composure.

"Let me take her, please," Jean spoke slowly but firmly, no room for argument. It was then did Venti finally compose himself and the violent winds started to die down to just a breeze. When Jean crouched down next to Lumine, Venti automatically started to move to give Jean the room.

Jean was gentle as she first took in all of Lumine's injuries. Then she reached and put one arm under Lumine's back and the other under her legs. Jean picked Lumine up like she weighed nothing. Lumine's head dipped back, her eyes stayed closed, and her mouth just slightly agape. If Venti didn't know better he would have thought her dead. 'What horror did you endure…' Venti could only think as he felt his anger rise even higher, it bubbled just under the surface ready to explode any second now.

A gasp rang through the crowd, murmurs ran through the crowd like wildfire, it was just shock and aghast from everyone. Venti saw several of the knights standing amongst the crowd. Each and every one of them had a horrified look on their faces. Each and every one.

Jean kept herself calm and composed as she walked, the crowd parted wordlessly as Jean started to run. 'To Barbra, no doubt.' Venti thought. If anybody could heal Lumine, it's Barbra.

Venti watched as Jean vanished towards the cathedral. It was then did Venti feel something wet and sticky on his hands. He looked and saw spots of fresh blood on his palms. The spots slowly trailed down his palm and ran down to his wrist. He kept his eyes trained on the persistent blood drop as it hit the cuff of his shirt and seeped into the crisp white fabric; staining it. Venti stood to his feet and stared out at the entrance of Mondstadt.

Blood followed every step Lumine made.

Venti gritted his teeth and clenched his fists so tight that he could feel his nails dig into the flesh of his palm. Oh, how the winds howled. They howled so violently that people whispered, fearful of another Stormterror attack, fearful of Barbatos's incoming rage. Rage was right, but Barbatos would never take his anger out on his people.

No… Barbatos would wait until he found the party held responsible for this act.

"This will not go unpunished," Venti vowed under his breath. 'Whoever did this will pay…"

I know this chapter was short (as of late I've pumped out way longer chapters than this) but please, let me know what you guys think! And please be kind, this is my first Genshin impact fanfic ever.